- EFront
eFront was an
affiliate marketing network which purchased successful websites, such as "Penny Arcade" andBetaNews , and pooled traffic to those sites to command higher prices for advertising during an industry wide ad revenue slowdown. In2001 there was a scandal whenICQ instant messaging logs between the CEOSam Jain and other employees were leaked onto the internet throughFuckedcompany.com . The logs detailed activities such as not paying websites that had hosted their banner ads, sending legal threats to websites that spoke poorly of eFront, and threatening to "rape her and spit on her" (referring to a female webmaster angry about not receiving her check from the company). The logs also detailed how eFront attempted to hire, though never ended up paying,Something Awful founder and webmaster Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, ostensibly to have him generate a positive buzz for the company.Richard Kyanka stated during a presentation at the University of Illinois in October,
2005 that he is still owed $40,000 USD by eFront, and that the company ran a number of competitions to attract clients, yet the prizes were awarded to employees [http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3318] .As of
July 2006 , the company's former efront.com domain is currently owned by an unrelated French software firm. [http://www.efront.com/]References
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*External links
* [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.efront.com eFront website] from the
Internet Archive
* [http://www.echostation.com/efront/ Original ICQ logs] - Sam Jain detailing his activity
* [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/19/betanews_escapes_efront_meltdown/ Betanews escapes eFront meltdown] fromThe Register
* [http://www.traffick.com/story/2001-07/dotcom_journey3_efront.asp eFront Fiasco Was an Affront to Advertisers' Trust]
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